A man and his ex-wife have been charged with killing a young policewoman who joined the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service just four months ago.
Kenneth and Melissa Browne appeared before Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar in the Port of Spain Magistrates Court today, accused of killing 22-year-old Constable Nyasha Joseph, whose body was pulled from the Gulf of Paria off Port of Spain last Wednesday, a week after she went missing.
Kenneth is also charged separately with illegally disposing of a body.
The two accused, who are in a relationship although they are no longer married, were both remanded to prison and will reappear in court on April 18.
The man was a friend of Joseph while woman was reportedly in a dispute with the young woman before her disappearance.
Browne, who had been in custody since the day after the mother of a four-year-old girl disappeared, had gone to the court through his attorney to force police to release him as he had been kept in custody for several days without charge. A High Court judge gave lawmen until today to lay charges or release him.
Four other people who had also been arrested in connection with the murder were released between last Friday and yesterday.
Meantime, Joseph’s funeral is tentatively set for Friday.
Police said the cause of her death could not be ascertained from an autopsy because of the body’s advanced state of decomposition.
Local newspaper Newsday reported that when Joseph’s body – which was discarded in a bag – was examined, there was a rope tied around the neck with two bricks and an anchor attached; her hands were tied behind her back, and the right side of her face was bashed in.
Last week after Joseph was found dead, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said the country was traumatized by the spate of murders in the twin-island republic, and assured that his government would seek to revive the death penalty.
In that regard, his administration has sought the advice of Ramesh Maharaj who was Attorney General when the last executions were held in Trinidad and Tobago in 1999. (Caribbean360.com)
